While the modern-day Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, eight
years after its Ottoman predecessors embarked on a massive and
systematic undertaking to rid the empire of its Armenian population,
the country today often finds itself in diplomatic spats with various
Western nations over its history. Outside the periphery of
geopolitics, it would be perplexing to most as to why an event that
occurred nearly 100 years ago would impact relations between Turkey
and the United States and various European countries. The answer lies
in the annals of history.

During the First World War, while the Islamic Ottoman Empire was
fighting the Allied Powers on the side of Germany, its native
Christian Armenian population became a target of organized
deportations and massacres. Long having suffered from discrimination
and second-class citizenship, WWI provided the Young Turk government
a cover to reach a “final solution” to the prevailing Armenian
question.

Starting April 24, 1915, with the arrest and killing of the Armenian
intelligentsia, an entire civilization was uprooted from its many-
millennia-old homeland and outright massacred or driven to a slow
death in the deserts of Syria. The material and cultural loss of the
Armenians has also been enormous, with some 3,000 churches destroyed
alone. It is estimated that out of a population of two million
Armenians, one-and-a-half million were killed while another half a
million survived and dispersed to nearly every continent, thus
resulting in the creation of a large and dynamic Armenian diaspora.

This is where global power-politics unfolds. As offspring of
survivors of the genocide, Armenians throughout the world developed
an ingrown sense of patriotism and strong national identity over the
years. With the Cold War over and with a tiny, but nevertheless
independent, Republic of Armenia in existence, the past two decades
have seen a renewal of the international drive for recognition of the
genocide in light of persistent Turkish denial.

The Armenian refugees of 1915 who eventually found themselves
integrated and well-established into their host societies, and
frustrated with a lack of justice for the genocide, often succeeded
in bringing their families’ plight to the attention of world leaders
and onto the agendas of global parliaments and the US Congress. It is
this very Armenian diaspora that is so feared and vilified by the
Turkish government, which regrettably fails to comprehend and accept
the realities, needs and anguish of these communities spread all
across the world. An eerie reminder of the policy of exile still in
effect, visiting diaspora scholars who have written on the genocide
have also been deported from the country.

To date, over 20 countries and 43 US states have officially
recognized the Armenian genocide, often with high costs and difficult
political battles. In 2001, when the French parliament officially
passed a resolution formally recognizing the Armenian genocide,
Turkey recalled its ambassador and threatened to cut off economic and
military ties with France. The two countries narrowly escaped yet
another political fallout earlier this year over a proposed bill that
would have criminalized the denial of the Armenian genocide in
France. The French Constitutional Court, however, found the bill
unconstitutional and the measure eventually fell through.

Arguably the most influential Armenian diaspora is that of the United
States, where powerful Armenian lobby groups often influence members
of Congress to pass pro-Armenian legislation and secure large amounts
of foreign aid to Armenia every year. While successful on a number of
issues, the Armenian Genocide Resolution is yet to be passed by both
the House and the Senate – a measure that consistently fails due to
Turkey’s heavy pressure on the White House and threats to close down
a US military base on its territory.

President Barack Obama, while a firm supporter of Armenian genocide
legislation as senator and later as presidential candidate, has also
not come through on his campaign promise to recognize the 1915 events
as genocide despite a strongly-worded statement in acknowledgement
of “Armenian Remembrance Day.”

With the one-hundredth anniversary of the Armenian genocide fast
approaching, Turkey increasingly finds itself isolated on this issue
and under international pressure to finally recognize the wrongs of
its predecessors. Its official policy of denial has been a total
failure over the decades. Turkey has long relied on its military
strength and geopolitical location to get its way on this and other
issues including Cyprus and the Kurdish question; if its leadership
wants to seriously advance the country’s democratization
and “Europeanization” processes, as well as to set the stage for its
rise as a regional power, it ought to think along the lines of peace
and reconciliation with its neighbors, starting with an honest
acknowledgment of its own history.